SWS Bank’s Jayson Smith took home the Riverina Murray Regional Business Award for Outstanding Young Business Leader. Photo: SWS Bank.
Jayson Smith from Young’s South West Slopes Bank branch has claimed the title of Outstanding Young Business Leader at the 2025 Riverina Murray Business Regional Awards.
The SWS Chief Strategy & Engagement Officer claimed the honour ahead of eight others, including staff from marketing and accounting firms, dance centres and construction companies.
Having worked with SWS for nearly 13 years, Jayson said it was a team effort that resulted in him taking home the title.
“It’s fantastic to obviously get some recognition for the work you put in through your role,” Jayson said.
“Anytime that anyone’s able to get recognition for those things, it’s always a good time, but it’s very much around the team you have around you as well.
“I can’t take all of the credit; it’s very much about the team I have around me, and they are obviously allowing me to do good things.”
Jayson credits the team-first culture at the Young SWS branch as a key contributor to his receiving the award, while also being a major reason that locals choose SWS.
“The success of our whole business is always derived from the support and the passion that our team throughout the whole business puts into their work every single day,” he said.
“If you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life. I know that’s very much the case for all of the people who work here, and it’s very much something that I believe in as well.”
While the big four banks are widely considered the most accessible for customers, Jayson explained it is the structure and the governance of SWS that attracts so many from the Riverina to partner with them.
“The thing that separates us is that we’re fundamentally structured differently. So we’re a member-owned organisation,” he said.
“Essentially, every single person who chooses to deal with us is an owner of the business.
“We don’t have obligations to external shareholders like the majors do, so we’re not tied between paying a dividend and making a profit. So we don’t believe in that sort of ethos.
“We’re able to give back to our community through meaningful sponsorship and other areas like that. And that’s what separates us from the big banks and the rest of the customer-owned or member-owned banks in Australia.”
Jayson and the team at SWS’s Young branch can be found at 89 Boorowa St, from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday.
